I was never a fan of French Alt-Right “Front National Party” leader, Jean Marie Le Pen and I am not a fan of his daughter who currently heads that party. Marine Le Pen might be more polished and diplomatic than her father, but she still represents an ideology that is toxic to a balanced political approach to France or even Western civilization for that matter. Even though her party is thinking of re-branding and changing its name to appeal to a broader audience, they continue to promote a highly xenophobic agenda. Although she received the most votes her party ever received in its history since the mid-1970s, Marine Le Pen lost the French presidential elections in the Spring of 2017 to “Centrist” Emmanuel Macron.

These elections were upsetting on many levels. Primarily, it was horrifying to France and much of the civilized world that an Alt-Right candidate would be in the running in the second and final round of the elections. Even though she lost, she managed to garner 35% of the votes. If I were Mr. macron, I would make sure that I remember the promises made to the voters, and I try to fulfill as many as possible. Much of Europe is very unhappy with the current migrant situation and the open borders, and that includes France. Many French people–even including some from the Jewish community– voted for Marine in 2017, that would have never entertained the idea even five years ago. If Mr. Macron under-performs, it wouldn’t take much for Miss Le Pen or a successor to garner a few more points if and when they run in 2022 and tilt the scale towards a “Front National” led France, and that is terrifying! Pretty much all blacks, Arabs and Jews would end-up in a precarious situation.

The challenge with the politics of Marine Le Pen is that in the mix of her anti-immigration and somewhat racist program, she is also promoting some good ideas. But unfortunately, the voters cannot pick and choose. As would be expected, she is pretty vocal when it comes to speaking against the Islamic State and its assault on Western civilization and liberties. Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to be vocal and expose the barbaric techniques used by the Islamic State or “Daesh” (Arabic Acronym for ISIS) as the French call them? From that perspective alone, I am in full agreement with Marine Le Pen, and I support her desire to expose ISIS.

Back in 2015, she posted a few graphics pictures of ISIS at their worst on Twitter. She was making an attempt at defending her political agenda after having been accused by some of being as bad as ISIS. Nobody is as bad as ISIS! So she posted some photos with the caption “THIS is Daesh!” Again, most people would disagree with much of her ideology, but in that case, we should applaud her boldness. What happened next was the epitome of political correctness.

Indeed, Mr. Macron has put new laws in place to fight terrorism, giving the army and the police more power to go after potential enemies of the state. I say good for him if this is true, but when I see the drastic move made against Miss Le Pen and her tweets, I doubt that France is going in the right direction. It looks more like a generalized “witch hunt” against Miss Le Pen, rather than a genuine concern for any potential damage that here tweets would have caused.

Again, I would never vote for Miss Le Pen or anybody from Front National, but I must voice my support for her attempt at exposing ISIS for who they are while much of the Western World has its proverbial “head in the sand.” This is a slippery slope leading to slavery to an ideology opposed to Western, Judeo/Christian values, and I am convinced that we will not survive in this irrational world of political correctness!

Another year is coming to an end, and as expected, it isn’t too difficult to find antisemitic events that can be used to punctuate the last twelve months amidst our global village. The Jewish people continue to be the “Scapegoats of Humanity,” while Israel is still painted as the colonialist invader of “Palestine.” One more year of propaganda is only hammering the peg of anti-Jewish sentiment deeper into the soil of our planet. In this first part of a two-part series are some highlights from January to June 2017.

I am not sure why it took the international community 60 years to declare a day for Holocaust memory, especially in light of the death of more and more of the survivors in the last few decades and the push by many pseudo-historians to deny that it ever took place. Nevertheless, the UN recognizes the Holocaust. But there are two sides to that coin! United Nation’s webpage for the event has the following statement:“Denying historical facts, especially on such an important subject as the Holocaust, is just not acceptable. Nor is it acceptable to call for the elimination of any State or people. I would like to see this fundamental principle respected both in rhetoric and in practice by all the members of the international community”. (UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.)

But when we look at the UN’s role in contemporary antisemitism and demonization of Israel, one wonders if it applies to current events?

FEBRUARY: Will Donald Trump Make America Great or Unsafe for Jews?Along with Donald Trump’s victory came support from a variety of groups that carry a very negative reputation such as Neo-Nazi and Alt-Right groups. Mr. Trump never endorsed any of these fringe elements but his opponents made the connection for him, and before you knew it…Trump was the new Hitler. If I have to explain to anyone why Trump IS NOT even close to being like Hitler, they probably don’t deserve to be told. Trump isn’t a violent dictator, he isn’t a sociopath, he has no intention of disarming America and he isn’t obsessed with destroying all those who do not fit his ideal racial profile like homosexuals, handicapped people, Jehovah’s Witnesses and of course 6,000,000 Jews. Hitler was all that. Hitler was pure evil. Comparing Trump to Hitler isn’t demonizing Trump as much as it is exonerating Hitler for his actions.

MARCH: Switzerland strikes an unprecedented blow against BDS!France–the one European country with both the largest Muslim AND Jewish communities–has also been involved in fighting BDS in the form of lawsuits against BDS activists. But what Switzerland just did was unprecedented. It was the first of all the European parliaments to pass a bill to prevent their country from financing organizations that clearly promote racism, antisemitism and BDS. In and of itself, this is a major breakthrough. In our age of over-reaching political correctness, it is a breath a fresh air to see a whole country stand against BDS, especially in Europe!What we shouldn’t miss in this bill is the fact that BDS is now bundled with racism and antisemitism equating the movement with the other two expressions of hatred. In essence, it claims that BDS is antisemitism, and it is!
The hypocrisy is obvious when you consider the fact that many other countries that have repeatedly violated human rights and are not even considered a threat.

APRIL: Ahead of his time, General Eisenhower was right about the Holocaust!The voices of the Shoah are fading away, while the voices of historical revisionism are shouting that the Holocaust was either grossly exaggerated or simply didn’t happen. Its memory is in the hands of family members of Holocaust victims. But some people realized early on that the horrendous, organized genocide of the Jewish people had to be documented. One of these people was General Dwight Eisenhower.He caught the importance of documenting and remembering the Holocaust the minute that he walked into the camp at Orhdruf. As he visited this sub-camp of Buchenwald with Generals Bradley and Patton, he started to realize the magnitude of what he was witnessing and immediately wrote a letter to the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General George Marshall in which he said: …I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to givefirst-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to “propaganda.” And yet, despite the commendable efforts made by Eisenhower and others, the Holocaust increasingly runs the risk of being relegated to some obscure corner of history, even worse…Some will soon believe that it simply never happened.

MAY: Do Jews Have a Future in France Under Emmanuel Macron?Under Macron, we can expect political correctness to become the rule of law, especially as it pertains to radical Islam. We will probably soon see an influx of new migrants come to the “New France.” How will that affect the 500,000 French Jews, who have already started to immigrate to Israel in large numbers over the last five years? In the near future, it would appear that the Jews of France wouldn’t be at risk. After all, over 93% of French Israeli voted for him. But is it possible that they really voted against Le Pen instead?

Macron’s multiculturalism and globalism will do very little to stop Europe’s Islamist invasion. As much as Le Pen’s agenda was extreme in many ways, she did have the intention of controlling immigration. Macron might just open France’s borders further and allow for thousands of unchecked migrants. Once again, the French Jewish community is at risk, even if the vast majority voted for Macron. It appears that they were more interested in putting a bandage on France’s wounds instead of amputating the infected limb. Time will tell, but what do you really expect from a French president who claims “there is no such thing as French culture?”

Ms. Haley boldly but not blindly came to the defense of Israel when saying: “According to Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, in its first decade (2006 to 2016), the council adopted 68 resolutions condemning Israel and 67 condemning the rest of the world’s countries combined.” She delineated the three reasons why she believed that the UNHRC is flawed: Bias against Israel, blatant double standards against Israel, and the fact that human rights abusers actually hold seats on the council. Her challenging the body of the UNHRC is courageous and necessary. It remains to be seen if the UNHRC can be reformed since many of its members are either Arab or Muslim countries that support the Palestinian narrative.

The second part of “Antisemitism in 2017: A Year in Review!” (July through December) will be published in the next few days.

Only days away from the first round of the French Presidential elections, the usual choice of candidates spreads across the political spectrum from extreme right to extreme left. France seems disillusioned with the last Hollande five-year term. The country is a very unique blend of cultures that have never integrated very well in the French republic. France is both the country with the most Jewish people after Israel and the USA (500,000), as well as the largest Muslim community of Europe(5 to 6,000.000.)

France is also not immune to the current refugee crisis that has plagued much of Eastern and Western Europe in the last two years. The open borders of Europe according to the Schengen Agreement are making things hard if not impossible to manage. The governments of Germany and Sweden are struggling to maintain order in the midst of a constant flow of un-vetted and unmanageable migrants. It is impossible to assess how many refugees come through these countries and even harder to keep track of those who just pass through to land into another European country, not to mention those who adhere to an agenda of terror.

Few are those in Europe who are bold enough to speak-up, as if The Old Europe was resigned to no longer fight for freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press. Cultural euthanasia seems to be looming over parts of Europe, so it is not unreasonable for people to look for candidates with an agenda focused on the national security of France. Enter Marine Le Pen!

The “Front National” party (FN) has been somewhat of a thorn in the flesh of France since its founding in 1972 by Marine’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. It is a far-right populist party with anti-immigration, euro-sceptic and antisemitic views. Jean-Marie Le Pen was fined several times for saying that the Holocaust was a”detail of history.” He also claimed that the Vichy government run by Maréchal Pétain during the Second World War was not inhumane in its help provided to round-up over 78,000 Jews out of France. In spite of all this, he actually made the elections run-off in 2002.

In 2011, After he had promised to retire, Jean-Marie was replaced by his daughter Marine at the head of the party. She immediately started to work on changing the xenophobic image of the FN in an effort to gain more popularity amidst the French voting bloc. Politically, France had always been characterized by a right/left polarization usually leading to alternating power every presidential election. Marine’s desire to put the FN on the French political map was somewhat successful. In the 2012 presidential election, she garnered 18% of the French vote which was the most the FN ever got. Then in 2014, during the European Parliament elections, the FN got 22 of France’s 74 seats at the European Parliament. Then, in August 2015, Marine Le Pen expelled her father from the FN altogether.

Many people in France are actually anxious about the outcome of the 2017 elections. The FN current agenda is attractive to many because of its push on ending immigration, fighting Radical Islam, and even pull France out of Europe in a Brexit style move. Marine Le Pen vows to reinstate and close French borders if elected. What ‘s wrong with such an idea? The last few years have seen France be the victim of several major terrorist attacks resulting in over 230 deaths. Promises were made by François Hollande to fight terrorism and antisemitism but in the end, very little was accomplished. Nobody knows where, when or even how the Islamic State will strike next.

Le Pen promises to keep France safe, keep it French and keep it going. She is currently neck-to-neck with Center-Left Emmanuel Macron. She insists that Jewish people should have nothing to fear if she is the next president. There are actually some Jewish people who believe that she would lead France in the right direction, and like them, I believe that she has something good to offer. Yet, the image that she has been working so hard at re-creating in the last decade might turn out to be a very thin veneer. Her true colors are not deep under that veneer.

She recently stated that France shouldn’t be held responsible for the Vel d’Hiv roundup and the French Militia that fed Hitler and the Nazis almost 80,000 Jews. She tried to back pedal, but it was too late and the memories of Jean Marie Le Pen’s antisemitic remarks of yesteryear were back haunting France and its Jewish community. How can one say that France was not involved in the Vel d’Hiv roundup? Saying that the French government was in exile in London is accurate, yet there were plenty of French officials and sympathizers who stayed behind and became some of Hitler’s willing perpetrators at worst or detached bystanders at best. Even if most of France was made of bystanders during WWII, they greatly facilitated the work of Hitler’s willing murderers.

Marine Le Pen might make it through the first round of the elections on April 23, and possibly with votes from French Jewry. If she wins–and it is unlikely– France might benefit from some of her policies. Then again, Donald Trump won against all odds. While I am not comparing his administration to that of a Front National government, Marine Le Pen could win in the biggest upset in French history. Unfortunately, I am not convinced that Jewish people would become safer in France under a Le Pen administration.

Elie Wiesel passed away on July 2nd, 2016 at the age of 87. In a sense, the passing of this giant is the silencing of one man who chose to perpetuate Holocaust memory in any way he could. He leaves behind him 57 books, too numerous to list or recommend here except maybe for his death camps Memoir Night, written in 1960. To Wiesel who received the Nobel Peace prize in 1986, much remained to be accomplished to remember the past and alleviate a similar future.

To him, apathy or indifference was one the worst evil in the world. That is exactly why he spent the bulk of his life educating a world in shock that later morphed into a numb world to eventually become the postmodern world in denial that it currently is. He once said “I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead and anyone who does not remember betrays them again.” He had always felt guilty of not being able to do more for his dad during their imprisonment in the camps.

He leaves us with a tremendous challenge. We must continue his fight. If we remain silent, his voice will fade away into oblivion or worse, get relegated to a couple of statements about an event that many are already starting to doubt or deny. To honor the memory of Elie Wiesel is more than appropriate, but to remember the Holocaust is vital to the survival of Western civilization. As a matter of fact, to remember the Holocaust and teach it to the next generation IS to honor the memory of Elie Wiesel.

World Vision International (WVI) humanitarian work has become the hallmark of Christian love and aid over the decades, so much that their yearly revenue nears $3 billion. Their published mission statement says “World Vision is an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice, and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God.”

In August 2016, Israel’s internal security serviceaccused WV Gaza office manager, Mohammed El Halabi of using up to $50 millions of charity funds to pay Hamas fighters, build tunnels and buy weapons. He was arrested in June and detained for fifty days before the accusation was made public. The Shin Bet claims to have more than sufficient proof that will be produced in court. Consider a few more facts about World Vision:

• When the Palestinian movie “With God on Our Side” came out in 2010, It was endorsed by World Vision VP, Steven W. Haas. His endorsement read “I dare anyone to see this film and remain unchanged.”
• On the World Vision website, all the countries helped by the organization are listed. While Palestine and/or Israel are not listed by names, “Jerusalem/West Bank/Gaza are listed. They made a clear choice in their labelling.
• in 2007, World Vision International, which by all standards is NOT A CHURCH, decided to change its fiscal status to a “Church Status” enabling them to no longer file the IRS form 990s. By changing their status to a church, they limit the amount of financial information they have to share. All these elements related to the reputation of WVI give us a picture of a shady organization with less integrity that they would like us to believe they have.

Most people have heard about the Great Wall of China, started in the 7th century AD and continued for almost 1,000 years. It was built to originally protect China from repeated Eurasian invasions and continued to be used for border control over the centuries. It measures over 13,000 miles. A much smaller wall is currently being erected in the northwest part of France in the town of Calais. It has already been dubbed “The Great Wall of Calais.” Of course, Israel has been working on their security fence/wall for several years since 2003 and hundreds of lives have already been saved because of the fence. It has been a very difficult diplomatic and political battle for Israel, constantly accused of being an “Apartheid State.” Comparing Israel to South Africa is far from honest since Apartheid in South Africa was based on racial tension and falsely assumed elitism, while Israel has been building its wall solely for security reasons.

The double-standard used regarding the building of walls (including the recent one started by Saudi Arabia to also protect itself from ISIS terrorists) is upholding. France and England build a wall to protect themselves from illegal migrants who most likely include sleeper ISIS members, and that’s OK! Saudi Arabia builds a 600 miles wall to keep ISIS out, and that’s OK! So why is Israel building a wall to keep terrorists out considered to be a human rights violation?

While they have the same source, roots and much of the same history, Christianity and Judaism have been at odds for as long as man can remember. Many of the Church Fathers such as Justin Martyr, Chrysostom, Augustine and others set the stage for Christianity to alienate Judaism by reinterpreting the Bible. Slowly, laws were passed and enforced. Jewish life became hard and often near impossible, but against all odds and because of God’s grace, the Jewish people are still here today. In spite of the Middle Ages Blood Libel, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Pogroms and the Holocaust, we are still standing. Christianity has had a difficult relationship with the Jewish people, so much so that the default mechanism for most Jewish people today is to believe that all Christians are antisemitic. That is why, whenever a Christian figure makes a repentant statement in favor of the Jewish people, it should be noted.

• Our greatest threat might come from American Universities.US campuses are where the next generation of American leaders are being molded and mentored. Regardless of your political inclination, it is an accepted fact that most US campuses are very liberal and the radical Left BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) movement is spreading like wildfire on American campuses. This is a battleground that cannot be ignored, but to the dismay of most of the speakers, Jewish students on various campuses are too often poorly equipped at best and uninformed at worst, to fight BDS.

• The time to act is NOW!While the focus of the summit was on how to fight anti-Semitism, other minorities were represented throughout the day. The reason is rather obvious; those who oppose and harass Jewish people will seldom stop there. Bigotry is always an equal opportunity hater.

I applaud the ADL for its efforts, and I encourage all of you who read me to be more vocal and more involved because NEVER IS NOW and to quote Mr. Greenblatt one last time: “We need to educate where we can, oppose where we must, and lock arms with those who embrace our mission.”

The Islamic State seems to be the ideological thread between these violent murders across the planet.

• The Islamic State murders: They will kill in many ways using men, women AND children to further their agenda of death as they seek Islamic bliss in paradise by killing more infidels. The culture of death that drives ISIS seems unstoppable against a world that values and respect life.

• The Islamic State infiltrates: The Russian Ambassador’s shooter had a connection to ISIS. The November 2015 Bataclan massacre in Paris was facilitated by the migrant crisis ebb and flow throughout Europe. At least one of the protagonists came to Paris through that venue and they will continue to do so all over the world until better vetting systems are in place.

• The Islamic State inspires: But the most dangerous aspect of the Islamic State is the fact that even outside of infiltrating or recruiting, they inspire! Their apocalyptic ideology of death is inspiring people to act on their behalf even without having been trained in Syria or elsewhere.

The old optimistic adage of “losing the battle but winning the war” has been reversed for our generation. I am convinced that we will successfully win many battles against Islamic terrorism but we might never win the war!

In conclusion, the Jewish people continue to be seen by many as the guilty people, responsible for many of the ills of the world, far beyond the “disputed territories and/or the settlements as the United Nations, Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry seemed to believe in the last days of 2016. While there is much unknown with the coming new US administration and the upcoming French and German elections, the Jewish people will most likely continue to be the scapegoats of humanity. 2016 wasn’t the worst year for Jewish people, but then again, a good day for the global Jewish community is seldom measured on how good it was but rather on how bad it could have been. You can call me a fatalist but based on my work of the last 17 years, I prefer to call myself a realist.

Another year just went by and unfortunately, the world is getting further and further from being a safer place. Global terrorism has gotten so deeply rooted into our daily routines that fewer people notice the frequency and intensity of the attacks. Not a week goes by without some sort of terrorist attack taking place somewhere in the world. While they are not ALL targeted at Israel and/or the global Jewish community, many are. Any student of current world events would easily notice that there is connection and progression from hatred of the Jewish people to hatred of the West and Judeo-Christian values. For a while now, Jewish people have been the “canaries in the coal mine of civilization.” 2017 will be a very interesting transitional year in many ways. We can certainly learn from some of the key events of 2016. It could be remembered as the year when the world tried to erase Israel from history. Here is my summary of antisemitism through the year 2016:

On January 7, 2016, The U.S. Department of State issued a statement in which Secretary of State John Kerry wanted to recognize the victims of the Paris attacks of January 7, 8, 9, 2015: “On the one-year anniversary of the January 7-9, 2015, attacks that took the lives of 17 people, we honor the victims of this tragedy and share the sadness of their loss. Their legacy endures as a challenge and inspiration to all of us. Charlie Hebdo continues to publish, and journalists around the world continue in their essential mission to tell the stories that people everywhere need to hear…. Just as we tackle today’s most daunting challenges side by side, the United States and France will always stand together.” There was no mention of the police officer or the four Jewish victims. The whole tragedy was bundled under the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

For John Kerry not to mention the Jewish victim was a diplomatic faux pas at best and antisemitism by omission at worst. It would have been easy to say “12 members of the Charlie Hebdo staff, one police officer in the line of duty and four Jewish people shopping in a kosher Market.” By generalizing his statement, he ignored the French Jewish victims and offended them. I wonder…. was there any other group he cared not to offend by leaving the Jews out of his statement?

There is no real consensus within Greater Europe as to how to handle the flow of migrants. Some Balkan countries like Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia are now closing their borders. Hungary closed its southern border and even sent armored vehicles to protect it. Sweden on the other hand, like many European countries has had an “open borders” policy allowing for a heavy flow of mostly unchecked refugees. Of course, Germany has been the dream come true for hundreds of thousands of “migrants.” This dream come true is now a real nightmare for Europe in general and Germany in particular. Countries like Sweden and Germany are in big trouble, and the kind of trouble they have allowed and continue to allow cannot be contained within their respective borders, at least not under the current conditions. So they are now controlling their borders and possibly closing them. Well, it’s about time, but could it already be too late?

Is Germany subconsciously suffering from Post-holocaust guilt? It took decades for the German people to get over the Nazi Holocaust. Today, Germany has strong laws against hate crimes and anti-Semitism, even if they might not all be enforced. Obviously, the last thing that Germany would want to be accused of is a repeat of its treatment of human beings during WWII. Thus the pendulum swings opposite side the Nazi ideology. Good for them, but be careful because there is bad in both extremes! Germany has been trying so hard to distance itself from the 1930s that it is blinded by a crisis that could put them right back there!

On March 22, 2016 the world witnessed the deadliest terrorist attack on Belgian soil. The concerted bombings at the Brussels Airport and the Maalbeek Metro station claimed the lives of over 30 people and injured over 300. In the midst of a tragedy like this, people–Religious or not, Belgians or not– seem to cling together in a sobering demonstration of solidarity.

What is even more disturbing is the fact that these acts don’t seem to phase anyone in the media. A woman in a Hijab and wearing a Palestinian scarf is seen tearing an Israeli flag apart and then covering the remains with the Palestinian flag as people all around her watch in silence. Apparently, Israel bashing now supersedes any international display of unity in honor of terror victims.

On Monday April 18, 2016, a bus exploded in south Jerusalem, making it the first major explosion of that type since the Second Intifada. Twenty-one people were injured in the process. This newest act of terrorism was welcomed with cheers from many Palestinians on the streets. Of course, you would be hard pressed to find any denouncing of the Palestinian jubilation from the United Nations. Imagine for a moment that Israel would be the one celebrating the death of Palestinians. The Palestinian authority would cry to the world and the media would feed on that opportunity for days if not weeks, finding enough evidence to validate their hatred of the Jewish state.

Around the same time, the world was shaken by a serious earthquake claiming over 410 lives in Ecuador and injuring over 2,500 people. Additionally, Japan was also hit by a 7.3 earthquake just a few days prior to Ecuador. Forty-four people died and over a thousand were injured, not to mention the tremendous tolls on both economies and the tens of thousands of people left without homes and/or basic resources. Once again, Israel sent help to both Japan and Ecuador almost immediately. Where was the Palestinian team in Ecuador, Japan, Haiti or any other area of the world where humanitarian aid was needed? Nowhere! I don’t expect Palestinians to go out of their way to help Israeli in a crisis situation (although it is always possible), but I expect Palestinians of good will to reach out to the world community and give a helping hand. Where were they?

These moves not only delegitimize Israel and the Jewish people, but hey also embolden her enemies. All this is being done with absolutely no historical foundation, simply in an attempt to weaken Israel. If factual truth mattered, UNESCO would obviously admit that the Temple Mount existed centuries before Islam was even born in 610 CE. Archeological and historical evidence are here to prove it and it should be exactly what the United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization uses to determine the legitimacy of historical sites.

There are plenty of Evangelical denominations loving Israel such as the Southern Baptist Convention, the Calvary Chapel movement, the Assemblies of God and others. But, Israel has also been treated as a pariah by several mainline Evangelical groups for years. The Presbyterian Church USA (PC-USA) voted to divest from Motorola, HP and Caterpillar at their last General Assembly in 2014.

Another denomination that isn’t necessarily known for its support of Israel is the United Methodist Church (UM). Possibly the largest mainline Protestant denomination, the UM have been struggling with their support for Israel in an age of social justice and political correctness. They already turned down two divestment proposals in 2012. Like the PC(USA) members, United Methodists are far from unanimous on their support for Israel. Many would rather see BDS being enforced. Yet, they recently suffered a major setback when all four proposed BDS resolutions were turned down at their May 2016 General Conference.

It is clear that the BDS movement, while still a force to be reckoned with, isn’t equally embraced across the whole spectrum of all Christian denominations. We must also seek biblical/factual truth about the Middle East crisis, something that conferences like Christ at the Checkpoint and documents such as Kairos-Palestine are not interested in. I am also convinced that in due time all BDS proponents will suffer the curse of Genesis 12:3.